


Forever and Always

by Meghan8awesome



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Description of a made up illness, I can't tag man, I don't know what else to tag this, It's actually pretty hopeful?, Keith is super supportive, Lance has a Degenerative condition, Lance's death in s6 is mentioned but not in detail, M/M, Not described but mentioned, Post Season 7, Pre-Relationship, Sick Lance (Voltron), These two are the best team, This is a happy fic dangit, This isn't sad, medication by injection, pre season 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 00:03:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19120441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meghan8awesome/pseuds/Meghan8awesome
Summary: Once they'd been launched into space, Lance didn't think he'd ever see home again. Between his body slowly failing him and the fight against the Galra, he was sure he'd die out in space. And he did, but his second chance and a slip of the tongue brings him closer to the person he's been chasing for so long.





	Forever and Always

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It is I! Today is a weird day. I found this bopping around in my drafts and was super confused! If you know me then you know I'm not usually found in the Klance tag as an author, most of my stuff is over in Latte (Lance and Matt) so this is a weird place for me. But I wrote a thing ages ago now and I figured since it was clearly done and doing nothing just sitting on my computer, I figured I'd throw it into the world to see what happens! 
> 
> This was originally inspired by the animatic Forever and Always by Doodlelist. It is not sad and painful like that animatic is (it hurts so good) but the idea of SickLance definitely come from there, as well as the title. 
> 
> Now without further adieu, enjoy!

              Lance was honestly surprised he’d lived this long.

              When they were all launched into space in the blue lion, and Coran showed them just how far away from home they were, he figured he’d never see Earth again. He was resigned to dying out in space fighting a war that wasn’t supposed to be his yet.

              And he did.

              Granted, it wasn’t the way he assumed he’d go. No, he assumed he’d die slower, that it would hurt more and more with each passing day before the demons he’d been fighting since he was thirteen finally got him. He assumed he’d stay dead too.

              You see Lance had better scores than James Griffin in school. He was a shoo-in for the fighter pilot spot next to Keith. He had the simulator scores and the grades to match.

              But at thirteen, he lost his chance at his dream because of a stupid genetic anomaly.

              He was outfitted with an autoinjector attached to a lovely little sensor. It would keep track of his vital signs, his heart rate and everything, which was pretty standard with those kinds of devices. What wasn’t standard was the coupling straight to his nervous system. It kept track of the current going through his body, the pulses that controlled his limbs among other things.

              If anything went out of whack, the autoinjector would hit him with the appropriate medicines, contained within the little box attached to his right hip.

              The Garrison cleared him for piloting, but at the recommendations of his doctor, vetoed any chance he had at fighter class. James got the spot and Lance was relegated to cargo pilot.

              He was under orders not to talk about his condition to anyone other than the on-site medical staff and Iverson.

              Suffice to say, everyone just thought he was an idiot.

              When Keith got kicked out, the teachers had no choice but to put him in the fighter class. The decision was made before Iverson or anyone else could intervene. Lance was going through a lot of different preventative therapies at the time, his coordination wasn’t always the best, plus his non-injector meds messed with his mental health. One of the side effects of the pills he had to take every morning was increased anxiety.

              His simulator scores suffered. Iverson was a dick about it.

              When the five of them were launched into space, Lance was relieved to find out he’d remembered to stuff his emergency medical bag in his jacket, because even if the pills and injector were a pain, he didn’t want to die.

              He had enough refills of the injector meds to last him at least a year, and an extra injector/sensor in case the one he was wearing at the time was damaged or lost somehow. Considering it was essentially screwed into his hip, that was something he very much wanted to avoid.

              His pills were a different matter.

              He only had a month or so worth of those.

              He’d gone to Coran as soon as he was able to, to find a way to make a substitute. Coran did his best but there wasn’t anything they could synthesise that would make a suitable replacement.

              Lance and Coran set up regular meetings to keep track of Lance’s health. And things were going pretty well until he and Coran got blown up.

              The healing pod did a great job of resetting things to the level of his baseline. Which was his first time in the healing pod really. But his injector was wrecked. Thank god for the backup. They managed to replicate the injector, so Lance had another backup in case he got blown up again, and the plans to make another one if necessary.

              Lance really didn’t want to die because of his own negligence.

              Without his preventative medications and treatments though, the stress was getting to him. He started going through injections faster than he thought he could. He had about three months worth left before the shield station.

              The shock from the energy that killed him fried his other injector. Allura’s magic brought him back but did nothing to really heal all the damage. He updated Coran about everything and spent a couple hours in a healing pod. His condition hadn’t deteriorated much since his diagnosis, the huge blast of electricity changed that.

              He started getting worse, faster. He could feel it.

              He started getting headaches, and black spots in his vision. His knees would give out on him at random moments. Luckily, the tremors hadn’t started, but he was easily exhausted during activities. Coran helped him get out of training more often than not. No one really noticed but it was still nice of him.

              The whole issue with Lotor and Keith coming back drained him a huge amount. The whole trip home pushed him to his limits.

              Meeting Bob was what really did it.

              Lance knew he wasn’t stupid, knew he was important to the team, even if he didn’t feel like it more and more often. No one on that stupid gameshow stood up for him though. When he was singled out as the dumb one or thrown into a tank of acid. Sure, his team looked concerned, but no one said anything.

              They had no idea how much he had gone through for them. The fact that he was staring death in the face every time he looked in the mirror. No one cared.

              Except maybe Keith.

              Even with that flimsy explanation, Lance knew Keith cared at least a little bit when he picked Lance to leave the show. He picked to save Lance. Nobody ever chose to save Lance. Lance was always doing the saving.

              Laying in bed, staring at the ceiling of his hospital room, Lance let the events of the last few hours wash over him. He had made it home. Alive. He had seen his family, had held each and every one of them in his arms. They’d cried, all of them.

              Then they’d fought for their lives again. He’d almost died again. And now he was here, laying in this hospital bed at the Garrison.

              No one but his family and Coran had come to visit him. He’d heard the other paladins in the hall, moving around each other’s rooms. He’d heard Shiro say something about Keith being asleep still. It had only been a day since the battle so that wasn’t out of the ordinary. He hoped Keith was okay.

              Coran had talked to his doctors. Updated them on everything that had happened to him and what measures they had taken to try and prevent his condition worsening. The doctors would be in at some point that day to start his new treatments. They can’t stop him from piloting now though, Voltron doesn’t let you chose who get’s to fly and who doesn’t.

              Voltron doesn’t give you up because you’re sick and dying slowly.

              A knock on Lance’s door breaks him out of his thoughts.

              He turns and sees Keith leaning on the frame of his door. Must be nice to be allowed out of bed.

              “Hey, how come you aren’t hanging out in Hunk’s room with everybody else?” Keith asks from the door.

              Lance huffs, “I’m not allowed out of bed yet. The doctors want to give me one last round of tests before they release me from this bedrest purgatory.” He replies dramatically.

              “They’ve still got you on bed rest? That’s weird. I’ve been conscious again for like an hour and they told me I’d be fine to get up and walk around a bit.” He pauses. “Do you mind if I come in and hangout with you for a while?” Keith asks hopefully.

              “Sure, I can’t guarantee any excitement though. The doctors don’t want me doing a whole lot until they’ve got a handle on how far my condition’s progressed since we’ve been gone.” Lance explains with a shrug.

              “What do you mean progressed?”

              Lance freezes. Keith hasn’t moved from the door.

              Well damn, he’s kept quiet about it the entire time they were in space and just when they’re finally home and in the home stretch of the fight, that’s when he slips up.

              He sighs, might as well tell him. It can’t hurt now.

              “Keith, I’m sick.” He says, looking their leader right in the eyes.

              “Sick? Sick how?” Keith asks, the concept doesn’t seem to have penetrated the fog of shock yet.

              “Sick as in I have a degenerative condition. My nervous system has been getting steadily weaker since I was thirteen. It’s been very small changes, I couldn’t tell for the longest time they were happening, but they’re there.” He says, not taking his eyes from Keith’s face.

              He’s always liked that face.

              “Is there anything the doctors can do?” Lance can see the revelation dawning in Keith’s eyes now.

              “Besides slowing it down, and symptom management? Not really. I’m surprised it didn’t get much worse while we were in space.” Lance shrugs. Keith breaks their eye contact.

              The taller boy is quiet for a moment, looking down. His hair is covering his eyes.

              “Keith.” The other boy looks up at Lance. His eyes are wide and scared. “Come here.” Lance makes a grabbing motion with his right hand.

              Keith looks like he might bolt for a second before taking a step into Lance’s room. He closes the door behind him before making his way to the side of Lance’s bed. He stands there. Arms by his sides and eyes on the monitor clip on Lance’s finger and the IV in the back of his hand.

              “Keith? Talk to me buddy.” Lance prods quietly.

              “What’s going to happen as it progresses? Is—is it going to…” Keith takes a deep breath before lifting his head to look Lance in the eyes again, “Are you dying Lance?” he sounds heartbroken.

              “Not yet.” Lance replies. He grabs Keith’s right hand in his left.

              “Not for a long while yet. We caught it really early in the beginning. Before Voltron, I was on a really good prevention regimen. If I hadn’t been hit by that discharge, the progression would have been negligible to my senses even with the stress of Voltron and the war.” Lance assures.

              “What discharge? Lance? Did something happen while I was gone?” Keith asks, suddenly worried.

              “You’re telling me no one told you?” Keith shakes his head, confused. “Wow, okay. I’ll be having words with the team later then. Anyway! There was an incident on a shield station over a planet Lotor controlled and the short version is that while we were fixing the issue a bolt of electricity was discharged and I took the hit for Allura. I died Keith.” Keith chokes at those words.

              “Allura brought me back like she did Shiro. But with the same body, I got to keep my health issues too.” Lance grimaces. “But I’m glad to be alive, even if it hurts in the long run.”

              Lance doesn’t notice Keith’s hand has come up to cover his mouth until he hears a choked sob come from the black paladin.

              “Whoa Keith hey! It’s okay. I’m okay!” Lance tries to reassure as he reaches for Keith to pull the other boy down to sit on the bed with him.

              “Shhh it’s okay Keith, I’m fine. I’m not going anywhere for a long time still.” Lance whispers into Keith’s ear as he wraps his arms around the taller boy.

              Keith throws his arms around Lance and buries his face into the Cuban boy’s chest.

              They hold each other tightly, Lance whispering reassurances in Keith’s ear and letting the older boy cry quietly into his chest. They spend several minutes sitting like that, wrapped around each other.

              A loud slam from the hallway brings Keith back to himself. He slowly loosens his hold on Lance and pushes away from his chest. Lance looks at him in concern for a moment before a small smile creeps onto his face.

              “Hey Samurai, you okay?” the red paladin asks quietly.

              “Yeah, I’m good. Sorry about that.” Keith whispers back.

              “It’s okay, we’ve been through a lot the last little bit. I just dropped a major bomb on you, you’re allowed to freak out. I was expecting more anger than tears though, if I’m being totally honest.” Lance laughs.

              “Why would I be mad at you for that? You saved a teammate, and your condition isn’t your fault.” Keith says confused, “I mean sure you didn’t tell us, but it wasn’t an immediate risk and I’m assuming you were checking in with Coran all those times you ‘helped him clean the healing pods’?” Keith smirks.

              “Yeah, you got me. Just because I didn’t want to talk about it, doesn’t mean I didn’t try to do anything. Coran did his best, but he could only do so much.” Lance says, shrugging.

              They fall into silence.

              Keith scoots closer to Lance after a moment. He reaches for the younger paladin’s hand and holds it gently.

              “I’m glad you’re alive Lance.” Keith whispers.

              “Me too Keith.” Lance whispers back.

              They sit there looking into each other’s eyes until they hear the sounds of feet walking quickly down the hall towards the room.

              There’s a knock at the door and Lance calls for them to enter. Three doctors enter the room and walk straight to the bed.

              “How are you feeling this afternoon Lance?” one of the doctors asks, grabbing his chart from the end of the bed.

              “As good as can be expected after the fight we were in yesterday, sir.” Lance replies. The mirth is gone from his voice.

              “Excellent. Your blood work has come back as well as the results of the rest of the tests we did earlier today. You seem to be doing very well.” The doctor pauses and looks at Keith then back at Lance in question.

              Keith, noticing the gesture, moves to leave. Lance tightens his grip on Keith’s hand, so the other boy can’t leave.

              Lance looks up at Keith pleadingly, “it’s okay if you stay. Please stay?” and Keith relaxes in defeat. There was no way he was leaving Lance’s side when he asked like that.

              “Very well,” the doctor continues, “Lance, the tests show that your condition hasn’t deteriorated nearly as much as we expected, it’s like you never left. In fact, you’ve deteriorated even less than we believe you would have if you had remained on Earth for the last four years. And that’s attempting to take into account the three years we experienced but you all did not.” The same doctor explains, amazed at the discovery.

              “Now, we do have some bad news for you. We have made the recommendation that you be removed from your duties as a paladin of Voltron, because of your condition. We have also been informed that this is not possible because of the sentient nature of the lions and the structure of Voltron itself. We wanted you to be aware of this though, as in the event of another pilot being found suitable you will be removed from active duty.” One of the other doctors says seriously.

              Keith scowls at the man. No one could replace Lance as a paladin of Voltron. The only other person who can pilot Red is Keith and that’s not going to happen.

              “I appreciate your honesty, but with all due respect, you can bite me.” Lance retorts, making Keith snicker.

              The second doctor looks stunned while the other two doctors look to be holding back laughter.

              The third doctor finally speaks up once everyone has quieted down, “We have been working closely with the odd man with orange mustache, we believe that the alien technology and our knowledge may lead to a more long-term solution for your condition Lance. We have started with the medical database information that was in your castle and we have begun to integrate their work with ours. We don’t want to get your hopes up, but the results so far look rather promising.” He says excitedly.

              The doctors say goodbye before exiting the room. Keith looks at Lance who, for such hopeful news, is rather quiet.

              “Lance? Are you okay?” Keith asks cautiously. Even after the time on the space whale with his mother, he’s still not that good with people.

              Lance sighs, “Yeah, I’m just…trying not to get too excited. I’ve had news like that before and it always ends in disappointment. I just don’t want to go through that again.”

              “Then why don’t we talk about something else? I heard you guys did some pretty cool stuff while I was gone, why don’t you tell me about it?” Keith suggests, hopeful the change in topic might make a good distraction and cheer the red paladin up a bit.

              “Not nearly as cool as the stuff we did with you, but yeah, I’ll regale you with the stories of our grand adventures!” Lance announces, the drama that Keith so missed in the two years on the whale coming back in full force.

              Lance tells Keith about the Voltron show and all the madness with Lotor. Keith enjoys the tale of the team’s game of Monsters and Mana, he suggests they play again, with the whole group present when they get the chance.

              What shocks Keith though is when Lance tells him about the Altean broadsword his bayard turned into.

              “Whoa, hold up. You have a sword now? Lance that’s amazing!” Keith gushes.

              Neither boy notices that they’re still holding hands until Lance scoots over on the bed, as of to make room for Keith to lay down next to him.

              Keith stares at the open space on the bed as Lance lays back on the pillows with a yawn. He looks up at Lance’s face to see the younger boy giving him a soft, tired smile.

              “I’m not going to bite Mullet. My back is sore from sitting like that for so long, come lie down with me.” Lance says sleepily.

              Keith can do nothing but comply to the demands of that sleepy voice.

              He gingerly makes his way further onto the bed, taking care to remain over the covers. Once he’s lying down on his side, Lance snuggles closer. He says nothing as Lance nuzzles into his chest, still keeping a firm grip on Keith’s left hand between them.

              “Tell me about the things you did with the Blade?” Lance requests.

              Keith launches into stories of the better missions he went on and the weird things the Blade members did on their free time. Lance closes his eyes at some point, starting to drift off and Keith stops talking for a moment to take in the scene.

              This incredibly strong boy, who was fighting for his life and the lives of others everyday, with a death sentence hanging over his head. It reminds Keith of Shiro’s illness. The illness that having his consciousness transferred into his clone took away. A cure that Lance couldn’t ever have.

              Lance snuffles a bit and throws his free arm over Keith’s waist.

              Keith freezes before slowly putting his own free arm over Lance’s waist and pulling the boy closer.

              Lance isn’t alone with this anymore. Keith will stick by him through all of it.

              “I missed you Lance.” He whispers into Lance’s hair.

              He doesn’t expect to hear an answering whisper of “Missed you too Mullet.” But it brings a smile to his face nonetheless as he watches Lance drift off to sleep.

              He should get Shiro to come talk to Lance about his own struggles with his health. Provided Lance is okay with it of course. He just got this trust back, he doesn’t want to lose it so quickly.

              The two boys are found by Krolia and Lance’s mother four hours later, together on the bed, holding each other tightly. The two mothers smile at each other before closing the door and walking back down the hall. They make sure to ask the nurse on duty to let the two boys rest where they are, before they leave the hospital wing of the Garrison.

**Author's Note:**

> So...What do we think? My last foray into Klance was months ago and it was very heavily Latte as well so I don't really know how much I like my characterization of Keith yet. I have another Klance fic in the works right now that's a but of a fix-it for after season 6 that's currently 23 667 words long and only half way done. That should hopefully be a thing I finish soon...
> 
> Otherwise! If you like what you read here, let me know with a lovely comment or kudos because I haven't interacted much with this side of the fandom but I'd like to! I'm meghan8awesome over on Tumblr as well if you'd like to come hang out!
> 
> *Edit: Why only now does this website let me keep my indents? What the heck?!


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